Date and time notation in Asia
Post-Soviet states
Date
In the Post-Soviet states DD.MM.YYYY format is used with dot as a separator.
Time
24-hour time notation is used officially and for purposes that require precision like announcements in the media. In colloquial speech 12-hour clock is used.
Greater Arabia
Greater China
Date
The date format follows the Chinese hierarchical system, which has traditionally been big-endian. Consequently, it correlates with ISO 8601 — year first, month next, and day last (e.g. 2006-01-29). A leading zero is optional in practice, but is mostly not used. Chinese characters that mean year, month, and day are often used as separators (e.g. 2006年1月29日). Since the characters clearly label the date, the year may be abbreviated to two digits when this format is used.
The exception to this guideline is in Taiwan, where a separate calendar system is used, with years numbered to the founding of the Republic of China in 1912. Thus, the year 2006 corresponds to the "95th year of the Republic" (or Chinese: 民國95年; pinyin: Mínguó 95). In official contexts, this system is always used, while the Gregorian calendar is sometimes used in informal contexts. To avoid confusion, the Gregorian year is always written out in full in Taiwan. For example, 95.01.29 refers to 2006-01-29, not 1995-01-29 (which would be rendered as 84.01.29). Another means to distinguish between the two systems is to place the terms Gōngyuán (公元, common era) and Mínguó (民國, Republic) before the year. Example: 2006 is rendered as either 公元2006年 or 民國95年.
The day of the week is often appended to the date and commonly enclosed in parentheses, such as 2006年1月29日 (星期天). Calendars mostly show Sunday or Monday as the first day of the week.
In speech, the date is spoken in the same format as it is written.
2006 年 1 月 29 日 星期天
Hào (號) is a colloquial term used to express the day of the month instead of rì (日). It is rarely used in formal writing.
2006 年 1 月 29 號 星期天
Hào is more often used when the month is understood from the context, i.e.: 29號 for the 29th.
Dates written in Hong Kong and Macau are often formatted in the DD.MM.YYYY style due to European influences. Nonetheless, the Chinese form of the dates is still read in the same way as described above. Visas for the People's Republic of China also conform to this format.
Time
Both the 12-hour and 24-hour notations are used in spoken and written Chinese. However, to avoid confusion, time on schedules and public notices are typically formatted in the 24-hour system. Example: 19:45. Chinese characters that mean hour (時; shí) and minute (分; fēn) are sometimes used instead of the standard colon, as in 19時45分; shíjiǔ shí sìshíwǔ fēn. Zhèng (正) is used to mean exactly on the hour. Example: 19時正.
It is not uncommon to see Chinese numerals instead of Arabic numbers, but tourist attractions will usually use Arabic numerals for the convenience of foreigners.
Spoken Chinese predominantly uses the 12-hour system and follows the same concept as A.M. (上午; shàngwŭ) and P.M. (下午; xiàwŭ). However, shàngwŭ and xiàwŭ precede the time. For example, 19:45 would be written as 下午7:45; xiàwŭ qī shí sìshíwǔ or 下午7點45分; xiàwǔ qī diǎn sìshíwǔ fēn. Diǎn(点; 點) is a variation of shí and typically used in speech and often in writing. Zhōng (钟; 鐘), which literally means clock, can be added to a time phrase, usually when it means exactly on the hour (such as 7點鐘; qī diǎnzhōng, meaning exactly 7 o'clock) or a time period of minutes (such as 12分鐘; shí'èr fēnzhōng, twelve minutes long). If the number of minutes is less than ten, the preceding zero is included in speech. Example: 上午8:05 (shàngwŭ bādiǎn língwǔfēn). Time written in the 24-hour system can be read as is. Example: 19:45; shíjiǔdiǎn sìshíwǔfēn.
A sample of other phrases that are often used to better describe the time-frame of day are listed below:
| Chinese | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 凌晨 | língchén | approaching morning/dawn (from midnight to before dawn) |
| 早上 | zǎoshàng | morning (from dawn to about 9:00 or 10:00) |
| 上午 | shàngwŭ | day before noon (from dawn to 11:59); also used in computer systems (e.g., Windows) to denote "a.m." |
| 中午 or 正午 | zhōngwŭ or zhèngwŭ | midday/noon (from 11:00 to 12:59) |
| 下午 | xiàwŭ | day after noon (from 13:00 to before dusk); also used in computer systems (e.g., Windows) to denote "p.m." |
| 傍晚 | bàngwǎn | approaching evening/night (from dusk to about 19:00) |
| 晚上 | wǎnshàng | evening/night (from 18:00 to midnight) |
Examples:
- 03:00 = 淩晨3點 (língchén sān diǎn) or 淩晨3點鐘 (língchén sān diǎnzhōng)
- 19:00 = 晚上7點 (wǎnshàng qī diǎn) or 晚上7點鐘 (wǎnshàng qī diǎnzhōng)
- Note: These phrases that describe the time-frame of day are used only with the 12-hour system.
Time can alternatively be expressed as a fraction of the hour in speech. A traditional Chinese unit of time, the kè (刻), was 1/96 of the 24-hour day cycle or 15 minutes, equivalent to "quarter of an hour" in English. A quarter-after is yī kè (一刻) or guò yī kè (過一刻), which literally mean "one kè" or "one kè past", respectively. A quarter-to is chà yī kè (差一刻), which literally means "one kè less", or more commonly, sān kè (三刻 ), which means "three kè". Bàn (半), which means half, is used in conjunction with the relative hour to mean "at the half-hour". Examples:
- 6:45 = 6點三刻 (liù diǎn sān kè) or 7點差一刻 (qī diǎn chà yī kè) or 差一刻7點 (chà yī kè qī diǎn)
- 8:15 = 8點一刻 (bādiǎn duō yīkè)
- 9:30 = 9點半 (jiǔdiǎn bàn)
Attention must be drawn to the time 02:00. It is written as èr shí (2時) but is almost always read as liǎng diǎn (兩點). The number two, èr (二), takes the form of liǎng (兩) when followed by a measure word, in this case, diǎn (點). Note that this does not apply to 12:00. Noon is shí èr diǎnzhōng (12點鐘) or zhèngwǔ (正午) or wǔshí (午時). Midnight, on the other hand, is língchén shí èr diǎnzhōng (淩晨12點鐘) or língdiǎn (零點) or língshí (零時), which literally means zero hour.
Cantonese has an additional method of expressing time as a fraction of the hour. This system divides the hour into 12 units, each five minutes long. Each unit, therefore, corresponds to one of the numbers written on an analogue clock. The character for this unit is uncertain since it is only used in speech, however the Cantonese pronunciation is ji6 and homonymous to the Mandarin pronunciation of 字, zì. This method can be used in two ways - with the relative hour and without. When the relative hour is included, the unit must be preceded with the measure word 個 (pinyin: ge; Jyutping: go3). Example: 3:05 is 3點1個字 (sāndiǎn yīgezì; saam1 dim2 yat1 go3 ji6), usually simply 3點1. When the relative hour is not included, the unit is omitted as well; the position of the minute hand is described instead, using the verb 踏 (tà; daap6), which literally means "step on", meaning "resting on top of" in this context. Examples:
- five-after = 踏1 (tà yī; daap6 yat1)
- ten-after = 踏2 (tà èr; daap6 yi6)
- fifteen-to = 踏9 (tà jiǔ; daap6 gau2)
- ten-to = 踏10 (tà shí; daap6 sap6)
The half-hour mark is never described using this unit of five minutes, however. 3:30 is still 3點半 (sāndiǎn bàn; saam1 dim2 bun3), as previously described. Half-past the hour is 踏半 (tàbàn; daap6 bun3).
